Joining seaQuest
by otherkate
Summary: How Lucas found out he was to be on the seaQuest


**Joining seaQuest**

A seaQuest DSV fanfiction

By Otherkate

Lucas glanced around his room and sighed. In a few days he'd be on the seaQuest, and Lord knows what would happen there. The big duffle bag that served as his suitcase was only partially full with the clothes his mother had bought him that day. The clothes weren't his style, but how do you tell your mother you don't like them? Especially when you'd have to leave the message with her secretary. Oh yeah, tell Mom I love her and her taste in clothes sucks. Mom would go off with a case of the vapors that only he, as her ungrateful son, could send her into. Mom was if anything overly dramatic. Miss social butterfly.

He'd walked into his room after a fairly decent day working on his program, and there they were. A pile of baseball shirts, pants, underwear, and socks. A post it note stuck to the top of the mound read, "Hope these fit you. Can't remember your size."

Lucas had glanced at the tags and grunted to himself. They'd fit. Mom always did think of him as bigger. Lucas couldn't decide if it was her way of asking him obliquely why he was so small or she was just being unfeeling. After crumpling up the note, he started to stuff the clothes into the bag, but then stopped.

SeaQuest was going to be the biggest drag. No kids, no girls, no fun. Adults everywhere. Not just adults; military adults. I HATE the military. Lucas snorted in disgust, and sat down on his bed. The only up side was that the sub would have a dolphin; he'd finally get a chance to work on his vocorder program with a live subject. Noyce had dangled the fact that a dolphin would be on the sub like a carrot in front of a donkey. Although, Lucas was pretty sure Noyce didn't think of him as an ass. Just stubborn.

"Lucas?"

Lucas glanced at the partially open door, as one of his father's assistants came walking into the room. "Yeah?" Martin was pretty cool, but Lucas wasn't about to let anyone talk him out of bad mood. .

"You ready?" Martin asked. He looked the kid over and grinned. Lucas looked absolutely disgusted with life, and a small muscle in his cheek flexed as he ground his teeth. "Don't be so glum. It'll be great."

"How?"

Martin shook his head, "You'll get to see things others have only dreamed about. You get to work on your little project. Things like that."

"It's not little. It an interface for communication with a whole different species of intelligent animal." Lucas stood up and began to stuff more things in the duffle bag. "You sound just like my father. Where is he, by the way? He said he'd see me off."

"Lucas, your father is busy with the geothermal project. You know that." Martin motioned to Lucas's desk. "You want anything from here?"

"No. I already packed all the good stuff. My clothes are all that's left."

Martin watched Lucas wad up a couple of shirts, "Didn't your parents ever teach you to fold your clothes?" He knew it was the wrong thing to say immediately.

Lucas glared at him, "No. The maid did. Or rather one of them did. She was the same maid that taught me how to make my own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Who was just after the maid I mistakenly called mom one day." Lucas pulled up the duffle bag and yanked the chord tight. "Mother fired her for that one."

Martin simply stood in the doorway and nodded, not knowing what else to do.

Lucas glanced around his room for a few moments and then sighed, "I guess that's it." He grabbed his duffle and motioned for Martin to lead the way down the hall. Martin sighed, and they walked down to the front door. Standing next to the door was their newest maid, Rose.

She smiled broadly at Lucas, "I made some cookies for you to take with you." She was a small woman, who had managed to fill up whatever room she was in. Lucas counted his lucky stars that his mother had hired her. Usually any woman who entered the house and had any ability to mother someone was bounced out the door immediately. Lucas suspected it was because Rose made even his mother feel babied. Mom always was one for attention, especially focused on her.

"Thanks." He smiled and hugged her.

She squeezed him especially tight for a moment and then released him. "I think you'll find it's the best thing for you Lucas." She dabbed at her watery eyes for a second, before continuing. "You know I care for your parents, but they aren't great parents. You need to be somewhere where you can be appreciated for what you are."

Lucas shook his head and hitched his duffle bag up higher on his shoulder, "Yeah, but what am I?"

Rose grinned at him, "A talented, intelligent, teenager with way too much time on his hands." She picked up a big bag off the hall table, "Here, don't eat all of them at once." She reached out and handed them to him.

Lucas took the bag, and stepped out the front door, "Thanks, again."

"Don't eat them all in one sitting. You'll get sick." She called out the door. "Oh, and Martin! Make sure he gets on the boat. You remember what he did last year when his father signed him up for summer camp; it took everyone a month to find out he wasn't supposed to be home!" Her voice gradually raised in volume as they walked to the car until her last sentence was screamed across the front yard.

Lucas grinned and waved at her, "Man, she has a set of lungs." He turned to Martin who was just getting into the driver's seat. "So, you really gonna drop me off at the sub?"

"Yes, Lucas. As Rose so eloquently put it, I do remember how long it took everyone to figure out you weren't where you were supposed to be last year. If your father hadn't gone home that day and caught you in the kitchen..."

Lucas snorted, "He'd never have known I didn't go to the camp. He would have said `hi' the next time he saw me and walked away after asking me how the camp was."

Martin turned to Lucas, "That's not the point. Your parents expected you to be someplace and you weren't there. Your mother had fits when she found out."

"Yeah, there was an audience."

"Your mother was worried about you."

"No. My mother has never been worried about anything except her symphony season being interrupted."

Martin started the car, "Your parents love you. They want the best thing for you."

"That's a lie. They had me because it was the thing to do. They got married, and then life wasn't so rosy. They looked around and realized the next logical step after marriage was to start a family. They had me." Lucas sat fidgiting in the front seat as Martin pulled out of the driveway. "They never should have gotten married, much less had a child. Once they realized that they weren't suited, they decided to stick it out. A commitment is a commitment. The one thing that has kept them tied together is me. Neither have time for a child in their careers or extracurricular activities, but a child can't be left a home. See, one of them has to take care of me. When Dad's busy, Mom has to. Lately, they only see each other when they pass each other in the garage. They toss me into the other's car whenever they can just to get rid of the hassle.

"Betcha didn't know about the fact that most of the communication between my parents last year was conducted through big post it notes on the adjoining door between their offices. Mom's are pink; Dad's are yellow. " Lucas was practically snarling now, "You know how I found out I was being sent to seaQuest? The same way I found out I was being carted off to camp: two post it notes on my door. One from each of them." He slumped back into the car seat and watched as the scenery blurred by.

"Lucas. Just give the seaQuest a chance. Not for your Father, Mother, Rose, or even me. Do it for you."

Lucas snorted, but a small part of him wondered what lay ahead.

*****

Lucas glanced around the docking bay as a man stepped in front of him. Looking up, Lucas glanced at the name on the breast of the individual. Ford. Oh, great; the Commander.

"Where are your parents, son."

"Home." I hate military jarheads, Lucas thought. "At least that's where I left them."

"Listen, this is a military vessel..." The man began

Lucas interrupted him, "No, it's a research vessel. Complete with a science team." Take that you, narrow minded grunt.

"That still doesn't explain what you're doing here." Ford crossed his arms and looked down at the boy.

"I'm part of the science team." Lucas grinned at the confused look Ford gave him. "Wolenczak, Lucas."

"That's impossible." He glanced over to another soldier standing just off to the side. "Ortiz. Hand me the roster."

The other young man handed Ford the clipboard and grinned at Lucas, just as Ford shook his head.

"There a problem, Commander?" Lucas asked.

"Yes, it says here you have a Master's degree." Ford looked at him, "You're what, 15?" Ford glanced back at Ortiz, who just shrugged. When he turned back, the boy had an unholy look of glee in his eyes.

"Yup. The University let me out early. Good behavior. "

"Right. And I'm supposed to believe that?" Ford shook his head, as he waved over another seaman, "You're in mammal engineering; seaman Mann will show you to your quarters."

Lucas glanced back at the two officers as he walk along behind the seaman, they were shaking their heads and talking quietly to each other.

"Tell me that someone didn't assign a child to a military vessel." Ford asked.

"With a Master's degree." Ortiz piped in, he glanced at the clipboard, "Noyce signed him in, too." He grinned, "Should be an interesting tour."

Fin


End file.
